he married the woman of his dreams. beautiful and sweet. >> she's just angelic. >> and was folded into her tight-knit family. headed by an elderly, religious matriarch. >> you were either part of their family or you weren't. >> together they had a little girl, sydney. when their marriage fell apart, his wife's family closed ranks. >> in their view cindy was their property. >> one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. >> he died right there. >> but who would kill a devoted dad? the unbelievable choice. his golden girl wife or the gracious family matriarch?

they seemed so loving, but was there another side? >> it's a monster that comes out of a closet. it's very ugly. how dark is that side? >> murderous. >> but which one was the killer? "the mystery on horseshoe drive." thanks for joining us, i'm kate snow. there is an old expression, you don't just marry the withone yo love, you marry the entire family. for one man that may have been more true than for most. his inplalaws were extremely cl and an mystery to outsiders, a mystery that turned deadly one day when he walked into their family home and never came out. here's rob stafford. >> in the home of a god-fearing family, in one of the smallest of american towns, the worst of crimes. >> please come and help us. >> okay. i'll get ahold of the ambulance,

all right? >> yes. >> the crime became a mystery. a who done it? >> it's a puzzler. >> it made many people in town wonder about one particular family. about what had been going on behind the closed doo ed doors r home. >> how well do you really know your neighbors? how well do you really know the people that surround you? >> did you get one? want me to feed it to him? >> our story begins with steven watkins who had grown up in tiny chandlerville, rural illinois, population 700. he had the kind of ideal childhood he wanted to recreate on his own. >> i think that was probably his biggest goal in life was to have that family he grew up with. >> steven's parents, penny and dale, say even as a kid their boy was always holding his

younger sister, ashley, or cousins, playing with them, showering them with attention. >> he loved kids, loved people and also wanted to have kids and be around them. >> he was patient and kind and had a smile for everyone. >> you could always see the smile in his eyes. i could just look at him and see the joy of life. >> brandy tolley ran cross country with steven in high school back in the '90s. >> just a really good guide. genuine, loved his family. i don't think he had an enemy in the world, always looked out for people. >> in his 20s, steven joined the military. >> i think he wanted to get out and see a different part of the world. he was raised in a small town and felt like the military could off him adventure. >> steven signed with the coast guard and moved to virginia, but not long before he left a former girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl named alexandria, alex.

it was his baby girl. he immediately jumped in as her father. >> steven was right there. when she was born he doted over, he was excited about every little thing. he would sleep right by alex's bed holding her little hand. that's how he was. >> the former girlfriend regularly took alex to visit steven in virginia and the bond between father and daughter grew strong. alex's mother then realized steven could offer more stability and a better home life for their daughter than she could and she gave him full custody. >> that says a lot about him as a dad. >> yes. steven was responsible and that says that he was determined to be part of his children's life. >> when alex was 2, steven moved her to virginia to live with him full time. >> he made sure she was in a good daycare and there was always times we he had to, you know, had to make sure he run up and got her at the right time. >> did he complain he didn't have freedom? >> absolutely not. he was content with that. >> steven also wanted a wife.

when his coast guard service ended he returned home, living in a house behind his parents and got a job with the state. about a year later, steven noticed an attractive woman whose office shared a parking lot with his. >> he was really excited, you know? he felt like, i find what i've been looking for in life. >> that woman was jennifer webster who'd grown up around the corner from steven's friend, brandy. >> she's very tall and just angelic, i think in so many ways. her smile was contagious as well. very bright, very modelesque. when she walked into a room people turned their heads because she was beautiful. >> she's a very cute girl. long hair. she can be as sweet as can be. you can take her to any crowd you want to go and she'll fit in. >> jennifer ee's uncle ed skinn remembers hearing about steven in 2006. steven seemed to be infatuated with her from a distance. >> she says this boy has been

watching me in parking lot at work, watches my every move, every time i go to work he's there sitting in his car until i get out and he follows me. my two boys look at each other and said, stalker steve. >> his mother says steven wasn't stalking her and had spoken to jennifer a few times before asking her out in that very same parking lot. they became a couple instantly. >> this happened so quick. i was shocked. she brought him to church two weeks after they had met and introduced him to my father-in-law, didn't even know his last name. >> ed says this wasn't how things usually went in his and jennifer's family, which he says was slow to accept outsiders. >> we're a kind of family that every single night for probably 15 years we met for supper some place either add their house, my house or at a local restaurant. we was just a close-knit family. >> the skinners are a religious family.

seventh day adventists. in the last several years multiple generations lived together in a large home, one of the biggest in the neighborhood. they kept to themselves, to the point where some people say they seemed almost clannish. brandy says not only were they tight knit but financially successful as well. the results of a family business. >> they always had nicer things. i remember growing up, one year they had a garage sale one summer and it was like a gold mine. >> jennifer was beautiful, well-off, came from a close family like steven had and yearned for a family as steven did. what could be better? in the end, the real question, what could be worse? >> he didn't know what he was getting into. coming up, steven's family starts to wonder exactly what kind of woman he's gotten involved with. >> it was a disgrace that she would even do something like that. >> when "the mystery on horseshoe drive" continues. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless, too?

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that's it. there's your horse. there he is. >> in the heart of the illinois farm belt, a new relationship was growing very fast. it seems steven and jennifer began dating one day and became a committed couple the next. and making it a happy threesome,

steven's daughter from a previous relationship, alex. steven often captured family moments with photos and video. his family says he thought jennifer would make the perfect wife and mother. >> he felt like she wants to cook with us, she loves alex, she treats alex like she's, you know, her mother. >> the woman to complete his life. >> yes. >> the family he was looking for. >> yes. >> but if steven was happy, his mother had her doubts about the girl from that tight-knit family. >> i didn't feel like she really wanted to be part of our family, and that was from the very beginning i felt that way. >> steven's dad took a more positive view. >> i just thought it was going to be a good fit for him and i thought jennifer would be real good for both of them. they presented a pretty good picture. >> was your son-in-law? >> yes. >> steven began spending much of his time with alex, jennifer and her family and he was thrilled that the family seemed to

embrace him and his daughter. as his sister, ashley, remembers. >> that was number one, is he wanted to make sure that they enjoyed kids and would get along with alex, too. not only was she nice and interacting with him and alex and basically the perfect mother, but their family was accepting alex and welcoming both of them with open arms. >> it was crucial to steven to have this family accept alex? >> exactly. >> within weeks of meeting, jennifer and steven got married in august 2006. steven's family remembers how happy everyone seemed the day of the wedding, especially steven. >> he was emphatic. just had a big, old smile, eyes shining. it was an outdoors wedding. it was really a nice wedding. >> they threw pedals on the sidewalk. jennifer was happy. she was smiling from ear to ear. they made several comments about happy they were they had a wonderful son-in-law now, they were getting married and he was going to be part of their

family. >> the whole family raved about steven and alex. >> the whole family, that is, except jennifer's uncle ed. he says he didn't approve of the whirlwind romance, he didn't like that stalker steve became the one so quickly. he did not attend the wedding. >> i was told within a month after they had started dating they was going to get married. and that's just not the way that our family ever did it. you get to know somebody. you date them a long time before you just commit to something in life. i feel she jumped out of a skillet into the frying pan. >> did you feel steven was jumping out of the skillet into the frying pan? >> yeah. he didn't know what he was getting into to. >> jennifer and steven's life together unfolded like a storybook marriage. not long after the wedding they bought a home on horseshoe drive, down the block from the big house where her grandparents and parents lived in ashland. a half hour from steven's family. not long after that, steven

called his mom with more big news. jennifer was pregnant. >> i was excited for him. i kept thinking, you know, maybe i was wrong, and being thankful that i'd not said anything, imposed my feelings on him. i'm thinking, they're going to have a baby, they're doing good as a family. >> but soon after the announcement, things seemed to change for steven and alex. his mother says jennifer's family suddenly wanted nothing to do with steven's daughter. >> and he said, jennifer's family told alex that she's not really part of their family. i don't understand how they can love her and make her a special part and treat her like blood and then all of a sudden just turn and go the other way. >> alex was very upset by the rejection. steven was as well. soon with the spring thaw, about six months after steven and jennifer's wedding, their relationship grew ice cold. now it was steven, himself, who was also feeling rejected. kicked out of that family circle. >> steven was hurt and

discouraged. i don't know if he thought that was just a stage that she would go through while she was pregnant, a hormonal thing or somehow he could make things better and get them back on track. >> but it didn't get any bet e. er. the relationship flew off the rails after the baby was born in june 2007. a girl named cindy. >> it was like jennifer wanted her family and her to be part of sydney's life but didn't want anybody else to be part of them. steven said, i barry even get to see sydney. when we get home, jennifer goes down to her mom's house with grandma shirley and all of them and he said she even bathes sydney down there and everything, brings her home at 9:30, 10:00, sometimes to tgo t bed, gets up the next morning and starts over again. >> he told his parents jennifer thought the arrangement made for the perfect marriage. steven thought the opposite. to him it was no marriage at

all. worse, he wasn't able to see his new baby. his mom says he was running out of patience and options. >> he said, mom, the only way i'm ever going to get to know sydney or to get time with sydney without jennifer being attached to her is if i file for divorce and gets visitation. >> divorce his wife and see his daughter? >> yes. >> it was a very hard decision for him to make. >> he also filed for custody of sydney and that set off a move from jennifer steven never expected. she fired back a bombshell. >> the day that she found out that she filed for divorce and custody of sydney, the day she found out she called dcfs and accused him of molesting sydney and alex. >> molesti ining sydney and ale >> yes. >> did your son molest his daughter? >> absolutely not. >> i thought it was a disgrace she would even do something like that. not only did she hurt him and

hurt alex, you know, she hurt the whole family. >> as the state investigated, steven was allowed visits with sydney, but his family says jennifer continued to keep sydney from him. >> knowing the skinner family, they were so tight-knit, they would let nothing come in between them and their grandchild. >> the allegations of sexual abuse didn't stick. the department of children and family services said they were unfounded. jennifer still wouldn't allow steven to see sydney. to force her to share the baby with steven, the judge in their divorce case ordered that steven get regular visits with sydney. that court order helped. steven was able to see sydney for a few visits. he sometimes invited jennifer to come along as they did to pick pumpkins in october, 2008. because despite all that had happened, his family says steven was still hoping he could show jennifer how good life could be with the four of them together as a family. his efforts were in vain,

though, far more often than not, jennifer and family denied steven visits with their family. once saying sydney was sick. one time steven called a police officer to the skinner home to help him but the family still said no. steven was becoming more and more frustrated. one evening in late november, 2008, the whole situation exploded. >> 911, where's your emergency? >> my grandmother needs help. my husband came to pick up my child because we're getting a divorce and he come after her and then tried to come after the babe baby and i -- >> jennifer was calling for her grand mother, but it was steven who needed help. >> looked like somebody decided to shoot him in the back

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it's not just corn that grows quickly in rural illinois. so did the family of steven and jennifer. they'd met, married and had a baby in about a year's time. and just as quickly their relationship fell apart. they were fighting over baby sydney when steven went to jennifer's one november evening to pick up the child. and within minutesennifer was on the phone with 911, hysterical. >> 911, where's your emergency? >> my grandmother needs help. my husband came to pick up my child because we're getting a divorce and he come after her and then tried to come after the baby and i. he's on the floor shot. >> is she shot? >> no, he's shot. i need an ambulance for my grandmother. >> it was a confusing 911 call.

jennifer wanted an ambulance for her grandmother, shirley skp skinner. as for her estranged husband, steven, jennifer told the dispatcher he'd been shot to protect her family. >> he come after her and pushed her out of the way. then he tried to come after sydney and i. oh god. >> what happened to your grandmother? >> i think she might -- she's having heart trouble. >> what's your name? >> jennifer watkins. >> i'll get ahold of an blanks, all right? >> oh, yes. >> about 5:50 that evening i got a phone call from 911 advising me there had been a domestic in town at number 11 horseshoe drive. said the husband came in to pick up his daughter for a visitation, forced his way in the house, knocked an elderly woman down and she was having medical problems at that time.

>> when he arrived he found this was no routine domestic. >> i walk up, open the door and walk in the house and directly in front of me was an elderly lady sitting in a chair which turned out to be shirley skinner. a personnel beside her holding her handed. she was crying a little bit. >> a first responder motioned over to the other side of room. >> i saw a body laying down there. >> any sign of life? >> no. >> it was steven watkins. dead on the floor. a .9 millimeter glock handgun on a box several yards away. >> trying to get in my mind what had happened. the ems personnel had told me shirley made a statement to them she shoot him. >> they reported to the chief that shirley said a couple times, is he dead? i shot him. he shouldn't have come back here. a stunning story, but this was secondhand information. from first responders quoting an elderly woman in the midst of a

medical and family crisis. were her statements reliable? had she said that? the chief asked jennifer what happened. >> she said steven forced his way in the house and knock the her grandmother down and then he was coming after her and the baby and the grandmother shot him. >> it all seemed hard to believe. the chief wanted to ask shirley, himself, what happened, but never got a chance. >> about the time i was getting ready to -- her attorney was on the phone and told me he didn't want to talk to her. >> she's already lawyered up. >> yes. >> after the chief's arrival, jennifer hired an attorney and stopped talking to him as well. jennifer's grandfather in the house at the time steven was killed wasn't talking either. so what had happened here in the skinner home? had steven watkins finally gotten so frustrated over the child custody battle he'd been fighting that he completely lost it and barged into the house on a rampage? with shirley, jennifer, and grandpa silent, the evidence would have to tell the tale. >> did you see signs of a break-in.

>> no. the door didn't have any damage to it. >> any signs of a struggle? >> not at the door. there's especisupposedly someth the wall that was broke hanging down. >> a skons on the wall. there was no indication the sconce was broken that day. there was no skin tissue or blood found on the sconce. had shirley skinner been pushed down? did you see injurieies consiste with her being knocked to the ground? were there black eyes or broken bones? >> didn't see anything like that. >> clothes out of place? >> no, sir. >> didn't like dishevelled? >> no. >> what's your, steven had been shot once in the back of the head and did not have a gun or any weapon on him. the chief didn't think it was self-defense. >> what does it look like to you? >> looks like somebody decided to shoot him in the back of the head. >> who was the somebody who shot him? members of the skinner family obviously knew who did it, but none of them were talking.

complicating matters, the chief had never handled a murder before. most of his law enforcement career had behind spent on vehicle code violations. he thought he'd be able to handle the case on his own but he couldn't and the case dragged on for months. >> people all over your community are saying, why hasn't there been an arrest? >> yes. >> are you hearing that? >> i'm hearing it a lot. >> as the case dragged on with no arrests meat who done it became the talk of the town. >> people are very, very, very aware of this killing in this community. >> bruce covered the case for the "springfield journal register." >> any time we write something in the newspaper about this, the tiniest little thing, it's the most clicked on thing or close to the most clicked on thing. it's a puzzler. it's almost a game of three card monty. >> no one thought steven instigated the violence. everyone, the reporter spoke to, had only good things to say about steven include two teachers who taught his daughter, alex. >> both of them agreed they had never in their teaching careers

encountered a father who was as devoted to their child as steven watkins was. when i talked to his co-workers, they all knew alex and sidney had pretend bake sessions so he had animal crackers he was putting in the toy oven and playing with his kids. how many fathers do that? >> everyone thought steven was such a great guy, such a great dad, who would kill him? ultimately mike of the state's attorneys appellate office, the sergeant of the illinois state police, took over the investigation. they focused on a key question. who pulled the trigger? the forensic evidence was no help. >> was the weapon tested for dna? was anything found. >> nothing. >> no fingerprints? >> no pinger prints. >> was gun residue tests perform the? >> no. >> no blood spatter was found on the clothing.

investigators had no physical evidence proving any one person murdered steven watkins. though he was shot to death inside the skinner home. all they had were statements from first responders claiming that shirley skinner, an elderly woman who was very upset and agitated at the time, said she'd shot steven. did she really mean to say that? do they really hear her right? who was the shooter? to solve that mystery, they would look into the inner workings of the tight-knit skinner family. what they found there helped them finally get to the bottom of who fulled t pulled the trig why. coming up, investigators have questions about the golden girl who held sway over the entire clan. jennifer. >> it's a monster that comes out of a closet. it's very, very ugly. very ugly. >> when "the mystery on horseshoe drive" continues. [ female announcer ] sometimes you need tomorrow

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we all lost our lives that

night. you know, it's not something you ever get over. >> on the tuesday evening before thanksgiving 2008, penny watkins' son, steven, had gone to pick up his baby daughter, sidney, for a court-ordered visit when he was shot to death. steven's wife, jennifer, told police he barged into her home, knocked over her grandmother and was heading for her and the baby when her grandmother shot him. had it really gone down that way? why would an elderly religious woman shoot the father of her great-granddaughter? even as investigators focused on grandma shirley, they began to look for closely at jennifer. for one thing, they learned she'd behind married before. jennifer's uncle, ed skinner, says that relationship was a sign of things to come. >> that didn't last long. she just had to have her way all the time and there was never his way. so he didn't stick around. >> he divorced her? >> yes, sir. >> did you blame him? >> no, sir, not at all. >> state police say when they talked to jennifer's first

husband she described an us against them mentality in jennifer's insular family. >> they did everything together, and you were either part of their family or you weren't. >> steven watkins was clearly no longer part of the family. with a divorce filing, accusations of child molenmoles and the custody dispute. now jennifer was losing that dispute. abuse allegations had been found baseless at a court hearing about increased visitation for steven had been scheduled. >> how concerned is the skinner family about this visitation ruling? >> very concerned. very concerned. in their view, sidney was their property and they were not going to share their property with anyone outside that skinner family even steven watkins. the skinner family was circling the wagons for themselves and he was the enemy. >> jennifer and her family feared steven would be successful in getting overnight visitation at that hearing. he was also continuing his quest for sole custody of sydney but never made it to the courthouse.

he was killed the night before at his estranged wife's home. according to investigators the skinner family had been so concerned about the hearing, p jennifer's mother hired a private investigator to witness steven picking up the baby the evening he was killed perhaps to observe something to use against him at the hearing the following day. >> perhaps dirt, you know, maybe the baby crying whenever dad picked her up. >> jennifer's mother told the private i. not to show up not long before steven was to alive. >> less than two hours later steven watkins is dead on their dining room floor. >> suddenly the child custody issue that posed a problem for jennifer was solved forever. according to ed his family catered to jennifer, he's the only skinner that has spoken to the media about his niece, jennifer. he doesn't mince words. >> she's a spoiled, rotten brat.

the world resolved around jennifer. we didn't do anything if jennifer didn't want to. >> shirley dote the on jennifer, the family's first born grandchild. >> they was very, very close. there was nothing jennifer could ask for she didn't get. she lived as a princess, treated as a princess. when she went to church she looked like a doll that stepped out of a magazine. dressed fit to kill. >> as she grew up, jennifer could be sweet but her dark side was something else. >> it's a monster that comes out of a closet. it's very, very ugly. very ugly. she just thinks that she can control anybody that she comes along with. >> when jennifer doesn't get her way, what happens? >> she throws a fit and life is miserable for everybody around. >> do you believe that jennifer was just using steven to get a child, now she had what she wanted, she wanted to get out? >> i think at the time she was probably hoping it would work, hoping he would obey her. i think later on she saw that

that wasn't going to work. she knew she had her child. that's what she really wanted. >> ed believed jennifer would do anything to keep sidney from steven. >> she said he couldn't have her. >> going so far as pulling the trigger, herself, ed says. after all, the murder weapon was not shirley's. it was jennifer's. >> jennifer has every motive to do it. >> and he says that even if his mother was the one who killed steven, she was probably driven to it by jennifer. >> so my mom and dad was around jennifer and her mouth 24 hours a day. and she is very annoying when it comes to something that she believes in. and she believed in not giving steven the daughter. and she talked about it constantly. >> this goes beyond annoyance. >> oh, yes. yeah. >> it's not just ed who thinks jennifer might have killed steven and that shirley was trying to take the fault to protect her granddaughter, a young mom.

reporter, bruce, went to a vigil for steven nine months after he was killed which included a walk to the skinner family home. people there were split over whether it was shirley or jennifer who killed steven. >> it's a head scratcher because what's the grandmother's motive here? compare that to jennifer watkins' motives. do these folks truly believe sidney was being abused? i don't know. doesn't have to prove motive in a criminal case, but you can't help but ask yourself. >> the jury will be asking. >> you would imagine so. >> a jury would soon get its chance. more than ten months after steven watkins was shot to death, an arrest in florida, where shirley and jennifer had gone to live with baby sidney. the chief was there. >> when she saw me there she appeared to be very surprised. i was happy to be there. >> but which up was arrest ed fr the murder of steven watkins? the religious matriarch,

shirley, or princess of a granddaughter, jennifer? turns out one of them had strange marks on her hand the night of the murder. >> two lives. . twolies lies. >> consistent with firing that type of weapon. >> consistent with firing that type of weapon. >> when "dateline" continues. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time...

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in october 2009, more than 10 months of steven watkins was shot to death, his parents finally received the call from police they'd been long waiting for. what did they say? >> we just wanted to let you know we picked shirley skinner up in florida for the murder of steven. >> shirley skinner, the religious matriarch of a close-knit family. despite what shirley's son, ed, says and the rumors around town jennifer might have pulled the trigger, it was the grandmother who was charged. jennifer implied her grandmother had shot steven in defense of her and baby sidney. investigators believe the older woman had executed him in cold blood. what do you think happened? >> steven was coming over to pick up sidney for his court-ordered visitation, came to the door, once again was told the baby was sick, perhaps he was frustrated and once again by being told that, maybe he said

something to the respect of, oh, bs, and may have well been lured in by that come in and see for yourself. then he's inside the house and it's the distance of approximately 30 feet from the main entry door to sidney's bedroom. we have to believe that jennifer was holding the baby. as he's walking down the length of that dining room he's passing shirley, as he walks past her, it's our belief that she then shot him. >> had he been turned over as though somebody was trying to do cpr? >> no, he lay where he fell. >> shot in the back of the head, fell forward. pool of blood around his head. his baseball cap underneath him. he died right there where he was shot. >> why had shirley been the one charged? though the forensic evidence collected at the scene was not useful, authorities did have important eyewitness evidence. something the first responders and the chief said they'd seen that fatal night. two parallel scrapes on shirley

skinner's hand. >> she had two marks across the webbing of her hand. >> what's significant about that. >> the significance about that would be, i'll show you with the weapon, as you can see, the slide part of the weapon is coming back over the webbing of my hand. if she's holding it wrong, something that would catch it would be that the hands and the marks could be made from that slide coming back. >> two lines. >> two lines. >> consistent with firing that type of weapon. >> consistent with firing this type of weapon. >> to investigators those marks conclusively put the gun in shirley's hand. what's more, they learned shirley had allegedly been planning steven's murder for a while. by trying to find someone to kill him. >> about a month or so before steven's execution, shirley approached two of her employees and offered them $10,000 to cap this guy who they identified as being steve watkins. >> cap this guy. this little old grandmother. >> yep. the one employee said he thought she was joking, at which point she says, no, i'm serious.

i'm serious. >> how did an elderly religious woman who once owned a daycare center become someone the state was accusing of premeditated murder? >> to her fellow parishioners she's a fine, gracious, christian woman who loves children. that's one side of shirley. the grandmother who loves kids, is there another side? >> she's proficient in the use of guns. which in and of itself doesn't mean anything, but that put together with the cultish form of that family, where everything is done for the family, within the family, to the exclusion of anybody on the outside, and we will take whatever measures necessary to protect that family unit. that is the other side of the contradiction. >> how dark is that side? >> murderous. >> and that went to the heart of the state's theory. that shirley had fired a fatal shot to rid the family of a son-in-law they no longer welcomed and didn't want in baby sidney's life. are you convinced shirley skinner acted alone? >> i believe shirley skinner

pulled the trigger. do i think she acted alone? no. there's been a family conspiracy, a family plan. they were not going to a low him further contact with that little baby. >> and yet no finger prints, no dna, no gunshot residue, no blood spatter, no recorded statements from shirley, jennifer or anyone else in the family. those supposedly incriminating marks on shirley's hand turns out they'd never been photographed. a jury would never see them for themselves. would any jury be able to sort out this case? an alleged family conspiracy. two women at the crime scene. one who appeared to have clear motive. the other 75 years old. neither with criminal records. it seems such a confused, slim case ed says. he and the family believe shirley would never be found guilty. when she was offered a plea deal she turned it down and chose to go to trial. >> i was convinced she didn't do it. >> jurors had their doubts, too.

>> does shirley skinner look like someone who could commit this kind of crime? >> honestly, no. >> when "the

♪ blank. in america's heartland, 7 a-year-old shirley skinner went on the trial for the first-degree murder of steven watkins. her grandson-in-law and two counts of solicitation of murder for allegedly asking two workers at the family business if they knew anyone who would cap somebody for ten grand. >> that went in large measure to her intent. it demonstrated the deep contempt and hatred she had for

this, the father of her great-grand baby, to offer money to kill him. >> the trial held in may lasted less than four days. the state made its case that shirley killed steven to eliminate a family problem. prosecution had no physical evidence to prove she was the shooter. no dna, no fingerprints, no gunshot residue, no blood spatter, no photos of the scrapes on shirley's hand. basically all they had was descriptions of the hand and statements from first responders that shirley told them she'd shot steven. now it was time for the defense to make its case to the jury. mostly young and female from small town rural illinois. lawyers for shirley emphasize the fact there was no physical evidence lichinking her to the evidence. they argued shirley's statement to the first responders, is he dead, i shot him, were made when she was having a medical emergency. how reliable could those statements be? the defense focused on a sloppy,

inept investigation by the police chief and pointed at jennifer through innuendo and implication with her ugly divorce and custody battle as the one with the motive to kill steven. they didn't directly argue jennifer pulled the trigger, only there was no hard evidence shirley did. what did jennifer have to say to the jury? nothing. she didn't attend the trial. the defense called no witnesses of its own. so what did jurors think of the case? we spoke with three. does shirley skinner look like someone who could commit this kind of crime? >> honestly, no. as a matter of fact, when i first walked in there, i really thought that she was one of the attorneys. i had no idea that she was actually the one who was on, you know, trial. >> what did you think of the police investigation? >> something to be desired. >> a lot of holes in it. there was a lot of mistakes made. i would have liked to seen pictures of the scrapes on the back of her hand. >> when it came down to the

final vote, how difficult of a decision is it? >> difficult in the sense you're deciding somebody's fate. timewise, what we had to c contemplate and weigh out, it didn't take long. >> they were at lunch before deciding shirley skinner was guilty of murder. steven watkins' family was jubilant. shirley's son, ed skinner, was shocked. >> i was convinced my mom was going to get off. >> shirley was sentenced to 70 years in prison. had she taken the plea deal she'd be out in less than nine. she's appealing her conviction. >> she tells me all the time, she says, please be true to the lord and don't lose your soul over something. especially what has happened here. >> what's it like to see your mother behind bars? >> horrible. absolutely horrible. >> is she equipped to handle what she's going through right now? >> not at all. not at all. >> although ed skinner has split from his family by publicly blaming jennifer, he still

strikes a note of us against them. >> i honestly feel jennifer made this bed, she needs to sleep in it. she knew what she was getting into when she got into that family. and she had to think in the back of her mind that she's going to be with these people the rest of her life. >> when you say these people, what's wrong with the watkins? >> nothing bad. they just a little bit different than what we're used to. we don't believe in drinking. we don't believe in smoking. >> you have guns in the house. watkins was shot in the back of the head. >> yes, sir. >> in your family's home. >> yep. >> somebody in your family did it. >> that's correct. >> hard for you to sit here and judge somebody else. >> oh, exactly. exactly. >> in the end it was a murder ed skinner thinks might have been planned as a way to get what jennifer wanted. but leave the skinner family in tact and unscathed. >> very, very poorly planned out scheme on my niece and my

sister's side. that ruined the watkins family, ruined the skinner family. i don't think that they planned it out as good as what they should have. if they was going to do something like that. >> but reporter, bruce, says for the skinner family, alleged plan stea seems to have worked well enough. >> a convicted murder, that's correct. i can't believe they wanted her to go to prison. they have what they wanted. they got sidney. to that extent they have prev l prevailed. >> although he wonders what the future holds for sidney, the center of what he calls the custody fight from hell. >> i would think that at some point sidney watkins is going to ask the question, what happened to daddy? i'll be really interesteded to how how that answquestion get answered by her mom and skinner

family. >> despite the accusations of a family conspiracy, neither jennifer nor anyone else in the skinner family has been charged with any crime. no one in the family agreed to speak with dateline except ed. as for steven's parents, they've been raising alex and battling jennifer for visitation with sidney. last fall a judge awarded it to them every other weekend and time in the summer and says there's an evil in jennifer he cannot understand. she appealed that ruling and lost and is now asking the illinois supreme court to hear her case. she has defied the judge's ruling and not allowed steven's parents any visits with sidney since before thanksgiving. a hearing will be determined if jennifer is in contempt of court. in the right time, steven's parents will talk to sidney about what happened to her dad. when she asks about her father, what will you say? >> how much he loved her, from my viewpoint, gave his life for

her. >> that's all for now. i'm kate snow. for all of us at nbc news, thanks for joining us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this sunday, from wisconsin to washington, the battle to rein in government spending is change up to be the major fight not only of this year but of the 2012 campaign. as wisconsin's republican governor takes on the unions and orders democratic lawmakers back to work, leaders in congress are exchanging threats about a government shutdown if they can't agree on spending cuts. >> read my lips we're going cut spending. >> where will it all lead? a special discussion this morning begins with two prominent voices of the senate. dick durbin, democrat of illinois. and republican member of the budget committee, lindsey graham

of south carolina. then more on the budget battle and what it says about leadership in washington after the president unveils a budget that fails to address the largest drivers of the country's debt. >> why did you duck? why are you not taking this opportunity to lead? >> this is not a matter of you go first or i go first. >> our roundtable weighs in. former governor of michigan, democrat, jennifer granholm. former congressman from tennessee, democrat harold ford. republican strategist and former white house counselor to bush, ed gillispie and cnbc's rick santelli. the very latest on revolution sweeping the middle east. after egypt protest and violent crackdown have spread to the gulf states. how will the administration balance u.s. interest with interests in supporting democratic reforms? our guests, the president's ambassador to the united nations, susan rice.